Abra Huacullo – 5,016m

Departamento de Apurimac, Peru

If you asked either of us which was the hardest pass we crossed in the Andes, we’d both instantly reply ‘Abra Huacullo. By a mile’. As we left Antabamba a few locals ruefully shook their heads and muttered that the road was impossible to do by bike, but later on we met a young guy who told us ‘todo es posible amigos, pero va a ser muy duro’. How right he was.

The actual pass is the fifth of five climbs over ridges followed by descents into valleys. The road is often very steep, the surface (especially on the climb to the first high point) is often bad and we had to push sections on all five climbs. However, in the two days we took from Antabamba to Huacullo we only saw two vehicles and the wildness and sublime scenery in this area make all the hard work more than worthwhile.